Gallifreyan Justice is the story that was going to be written as the second part of the Silis story before it became a trilogy. It begins with the painting of Marion sleeping with her hand on a tame leonate called Hecate. That painting is retrospectively given significance in the Theta Sigma story ‘Return of the Son of Lœngbærrow’, when Chrístõ looks at the painting and remembers looking at it often during his childhood.

For now, it merely sparks Marion’s determination to find justice for Silis. Of course, that is no simple task, and Kristoph tells her why. But she insists. In the breakfast scene we actually see Marion being quite manipulative in a traditionally female way. She uses the fact that Kristoph adores her and would do anything for her to get him to agree to looking into it.

Meanwhile, she gets to spend the day finding out how Gallifreyan Justice really works. And it isn’t very far different from the magistrate system of the UK. I really couldn’t think of any other way for it to work. Of course, there are some slightly different punishments for those convicted in a Gallifreyan court. Flogging is not a sentence an English magistrate gets to order, no matter how much he might be tempted. Penal mines are not a feature of our system, either.

But we base our culture on the hope that our magistrate system is fair, and so does Gallifrey. In the course of his day, Kristoph demonstrates his vision of justice. First he gives the wisdom of Solomon to a land dispute between two brothers, and then exposes a false accuser and exonerates an innocent woman. He then deals harshly with two cases of real criminal intent, one by Caretakers, the other by Newbloods. It is significant that he spares the Newbloods the flogging, but gives them much longer sentences for their crimes because they did it out of sheer greed.

And then, of course, we come to the question of Silis’s guilt. Marion is initially hostile to Lord Dvoratre because he is the one who convicted her friend all those years ago, and when she sees the ‘highlights’ of the case she is appalled that he missed so many obvious flaws in the prosecution. But Kristoph is right. In hindsight miscarriages of justice are much easier to see than at the time when emotions are high and pressure to convict is paramount. There have been enough high profile cases in recent British history to prove the point.

And, of course, what happens when a wrongly convicted person is released from prison after ten, fifteen, twenty years? The huge adjustment to life in a changed world is difficult for them. Silis, having been a prisoner in Shada’s cryogenic prison for thousands of years, had chosen to retreat from society and live quietly. His reaction to being told that his conviction has been overturned is a realistic one, I think. Marion, of course, hoped that he would be able to come out of his hermitage. But it is far more likely that a man like Silis would react just as he did. He knew, after all, that he WAS innocent. The official acknowledgement of the fact meant nothing to him, and he went back to his chosen life. It isn’t the happy ending that Marion would want, but it is a more likely one.